The Winter Olympics kick off on February 4 in Beijing. Everything is ready and the Chinese, the biggest polluters on the planet, want to take advantage of these Games to show their know-how in terms of ecology and sustainable development.
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When you fly over the ski resort of Chongli in a gondola, the spectacle is magnificent with the mountains, but there is like an anomaly. It is the middle of winter in this province of Hebei, but the vegetation is totally apparent. Outside the slopes, there is hardly any snow. In the sector, it does not fall more than one meter throughout the season.
The snow for the Olympic Games will therefore be almost 100% artificial, thanks to the cannons installed at the edge of the slopes. But the authorities are hammering it out: making snow will not cost a lot of water. “We used around 300,000 cubic meters of water to make snow here for three competition venues, explains Jia Maotiang, general manager of the operation of the Olympic venues in the municipality of Zhangjiakou. In summer in the region, it rains as soon as there are clouds. We collected the rainwater and we stored it all in a large 200,000 cubic meter reservoir, built in 2018. And there are five other small reservoirs: we don’t need the water from the lakes or to tap into the groundwater. “
On the heights of the station, several fields of wind turbines will be clearly visible during the Games to show that China, champion of coal, also knows how to manufacture clean energy. “We use electricity that comes in particular from a wind farm, in particular to heat hotel rooms., details Li Zhenlong, responsible for the construction of the Olympic cross-country ski site. The station is not connected to gas and there is no coal. It’s absolutely clean energy, thanks to wind turbines. “
And China also wants to take advantage of these Olympics to show the world its ability to close and convert some of the country’s most polluting industrial sites. The Shougang steel complex in Beijing, closed in 2008, will host snowboard competitions in February.